I've also peeled the stem cut them to about 1 inch length and stir fried them with other veggies . That was good. The oldish leaves stripped off the same stem and chopped up were acceptable as a cooked ingredient in other meals. I've not used the leaves from a plant that has started to flower.
Young leaves from the second year stalk were cooked as greens by the Cherokee indians (who first saw Europeans in 1540.) Young second year stalks can also be peeled and eaten. That stalk dried makes a good drill for making fire. Leaves can be eaten if boiled more than once but they are usually tough and gritty. Flower buds can be eaten raw or cooked and the flowers added to salads. The seeds are edible as well (those seeds can also remain viable in the soil for at least 70 years.) Try all parts carefully and sparingly. They can bother the throat of some people even when cooked, and the taste may be acquired. From Eat the weeds.
I don't remember how the green seedpods were, so they must not have been awful.
But ummm.... The experts said flower buds, NOT green seedpods. Well, I'm still alive.
